Featured How Christ Was "Made Sin"

So I don't have much time this week, since we are having our Bible conference and I'm still grading papers from the two week class I taught. But I got very curious about the idea that "sin offering" in the LXX is just the word hamartia (ἁμαρτία), "sin." So I chose some random verses and looked at the LXX, and here is what I found. I'll list the KJV verse then the LXX.

Ex. 29:14 But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it [is] a sin offering.
ἁμαρτίας γάρ ἐστιν (Exo 29:14)—genitive, “It is ‘of sin’”--So there is more going on there than just "sin." It is "of or pertaining to sin."

Lev. 4:24 And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD: it [is] a sin offering.
ἐνώπιον κυρίου ἁμαρτία ἐστίν (Lev. 4:24), “it is sin before the Lord.”--This seems to fit the hamartia = sin offering thesis.

Num. 7:46 One kid of the goats for a sin offering:
περὶ ἁμαρτίας (Num. 7:46)--"for sin," a prepositional phrase. Here it is not just the word hamartia, but the preposition that gives it the "offering" meaning.

2 Chron. 29:21 And they brought seven bullocks, and seven rams, and seven lambs, and seven he goats, for a sin offering for the kingdom, and for the sanctuary, and for Judah. And he commanded the priests the sons of Aaron to offer [them] on the altar of the LORD.
περὶ ἁμαρτίας (2Ch 29:21 BGT)--Again we have the prepositional phrase, not just hamartia.

Ezra 8:35 [Also] the children of those that had been carried away, which were come out of the captivity, offered burnt offerings unto the God of Israel, twelve bullocks for all Israel, ninety and six rams, seventy and seven lambs, twelve he goats [for] a sin offering: all [this was] a burnt offering unto the LORD.
περὶ ἁμαρτίας (Ezra 8:35 BGT), “for sin”--Once again, the preposition gives added meaning, not just the word "sin."

Ezek. 40:39 And in the porch of the gate [were] two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.
ὑπὲρ ἁμαρτίας (Ezek. 40:39 BGT), “for sin”--Again we have the prepositional phrase, not just hamartia.

So, in six examples, four of them are the prepositional phrase "for sin," and I would agree that the phrase means "sin offering," but not that the single word hamartia means "sin offering" in these cases.

There is one example where the word is genitive, "of sin," making it more than just "sin" meaning "sin offering."

There is only one out of six that might have hamartia by itself meaning "sin offering." This is only preliminary, but I think it's significant. And it certainly casts doubt on the idea that hamartia in the NT can mean "sin offering."

 

Being I know, no Greek I would like to ask if the following has any effect on the argument?

The accusative of sin and the Aorist Active Indicative of he did make.

A question concerning the, aorist, does it have any lasting effect, as to how long he would be considered as, sin?

BTW I know, no Hebrew either.

One more question relative to Num 19:11,

'He who is coming against [touches] the dead body of any man [to any, of soul, human] -- is unclean seven days;


My thoughts relative. Following the Lord's Passover Lev 23:5 in the first month, on the fourteenth of the month, between the evenings, is the Passover to Jehovah;


Lev 23:11 then he hath waved the sheaf before Jehovah for your acceptance; on the morrow of the sabbath doth the priest wave it. Num 1912 ESV He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean.
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: From John 20:17
From Acts 2:32&33 NKJV “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit,

Titus 3:5 NKJV not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of Holy Spirit,

 

Not as far as I know. Simply because a metaphor is single usage does not disprove its use as a metaphor. A word is a metaphor by dint of it having a figurative meaning. In this case, it is impossible for a person (Christ or anyone) to become a noncorporeal thing (sin), so therefore it is a metaphor. Christ is the Lamb of God, but He cannot literally become an animal, so therefore that is a metaphor.

 

The word for sin is accusative simply because it is the direct object of the verb. The verb for "made" is aorist, as you say. The significance (verbal aspect) of the aorist tense is that the action is observed as a whole.

There is no imperfective (continued) or perfective (the result considered) aspect with the aorist. It simply points to the action as a whole.

Interesting thoughts, but do you have a question for me?

 

I do take the passage for what is written in the text. I take the passage to mean that Jesus was made sin, which is what the text says.

No. What we agree (I hope) is that the Lord Jesus was not made a sinner. The Greek word for 'sinner' is hamartolos (eg. Luke 7:37; Galatians 2:15 etc.), which does not appear in 2 Cor. 5:21.
[/QUOTE]
As you noted, you are aware of the use of hamartia in the Greek (in the Greek literature available to 1st Century Corinth) to indicate an inner movement or quality that leads to the death of the protagonist or to a tragic event. [/QUOTE]
I am not aware of any ancient secular Greek literature that speaks of someone being made sin or becoming righteousness.
If you know of any, I'm sure you will let me know.

To make hamartia to mean 'sin offering' is not to use the literal meaning. In the NT, hamartia means 'sin' and so it is translated more than 170 times in the NT.
As I say, the text does not say that our Lord was made a sinner - to miss the mark - but that He was made sin. What does that mean? To discover that we have to follow basic hermeneutical rules and look at other Scriptures. When we do so we find that God made the sin of all the elect to land on Him (Isaiah 53:6), and that He bore that sin, and the curse of them, in His body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24).

No. I am saying that He did not use hamartia in an entirely new way but translated it as 'sin.' You are saying that he used it in a new way, a way unknown to the New Testament, which is the book we are considering, by translating it as 'sin offering' when there is a phrase used for 'sin offering' - prosphera peri hamartias - which is used in the NT.

Now here AGAIN are my reasons for taking hamartia to mean 'sin' and not 'sin offering' in 2 Corinthians 5:21:
1. Hamartia appears twice in the verse in the space of four words: ... hamartian huper hemon hamartian... . It beggars belief that the Holy Spirit would use the word twice that quickly with two different meanings, but to say 'He made Him who knew no sin offering to be a sin offering for us' makes no sense.
2. Christ being made sin (not a sinner) is contrasted with us becoming righteousness ( not 'righteous'). Therefore spiritual is being compared with spiritual (2 Corinthians 2:13). We cannot 'literally' become righteousness any more than our Lord could 'literally' become sin
3. Hamartia is never used to mean 'sin offering' in the NT. It is used to mean 'sin' 170+ times.
4. Christ being made sin is explained elsewhere in the Scriptures (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24).

PLEASE do not ask me for this again as a refusal often offends.

 

First of all, let's make sure we know what a metaphor is. The rest of this discussion is useless without that. A metaphor is a “Figure of speech in which a word or expression normally used of one kind of object, action, etc. is extended to another”P. H. Matthews, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics, 243).

An English textbook defines it as “an implied comparison, one that does not use like or as" (James A. Chapman, College Grammar and Composition Handbook, 132).

Christ the human sin-bearer was separated from the Father on the cross in some way we cannot possibly comprehend. I see no other way to explain His saying on the cross, "My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?"

We already have an incredible metaphor in Scripture portraying Christ as the sin-bearer, as you know: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world" (John 1:29).

And again, you've certainly not proven to my satisfaction that sin in Greek = sin offering in the NT

 

Thanks for the clarification.

Well then, neither of us is satisfied with the other's position. That's nothing new.

Never said that. Didn't mean that. Don't think that.

The atonement is that "Christ died for our sins." End of story.

 

No, you are replacing 'sin' to suit your theology. I laid out four reasons for my position (and I can't help noticing that you have not engaged with any of them!) and they are linguistic and contextual. Once again you are playing the man instead of the ball.
You, on the other hand, have a theological golden calf, which is your denial of the Doctrine of Penal Substitution, which leads you to deny that Christ can be made sin, even if the Bible says He is, which it rather plainly does.

Once again, Christ was made sin in just the same way that we become righteousness - by imputation. Our sins are laid upon the sinless Christ, and His perfect righteousness and obedience to the Father are credited to us.

I addressed this in a previous post (#90). Liddell & Scott list the meanings of hamartia as 'a failure, error, sin.' If you have clear examples of hamartia being used in Greek literature to indicate something different, I shall be interested to hear of them. My Greek degree was 50 years ago, and sometimes memory plays tricks. Bear in mind though that what the Bible views as a sin was not necessarily so viewed by pagan Greeks

You have repeatedly claimed that it is.

No it isn't. That would be prosphera peri hamartias (Hebrews 10:18), or mian huper hamartion .... thusian ('One sacrifice for sins) in Hebrews 10:12. Hamartia means 'sin.'

Oh for goodness' sake! Do you never bother to read what I write? Here it is again, with the bit you didn't read underlined.
1. Hamartia appears twice in the verse in the space of four words: ... hamartian huper hemon hamartian... . It beggars belief that the Holy Spirit would use the word twice that quickly with two different meanings, but to say 'He made Him who knew no sin offering to be a sin offering for us' makes no sense.

I don't 'admit' that the Lord Jesus was sinless; I joyfully proclaim it.
That our Lord was made a sin offering, I quite agree. It's there, of course, in Isaiah 53:10 and Hebrews is full of it. But that is not the meaning in 2 Cor. 5:21.

I am not inserting my theology into the verse; you are. Christ was made sin. I'll repeat what I said above in the hope that if I write it often enough you will actually read it. Once again, Christ was made sin in just the same way that we become righteousness - by imputation. Our sins are laid upon the sinless Christ, and His perfect righteousness and obedience to the Father are credited to us. God does not justify the righteous; He justifies the ungodly. He declares them righteous on the basis of the perfect life and sin-bearing death of the Saviour.

I really can't spend any more time writing the same thing over and over again. I will not be replying to any more posts until I have finished preparing my sermons and doing other work for the Lord. When I have finished that I will start a new thread.[/QUOTE][/QUOTE]

 

I really didn't intend to get this involved in this discussion. I was simply drawn to the Greek element, being a Greek geek.

It's our Bible conference, and I'm on security, so I have little time. I'll just say that whatever someone else thinks of my exegesis is no concern of mine. (You mentioned someone possibly drawing the wrong conclusions from what I wrote.)

Carry on.

 

Thanks for your reply, know you are busy. I have read thru the balance of thread and do not think it was metaphorical but literally made sin as you stated he said, "My God My God why have you forsaken me," It [sin] is finished," . James by the HS says in 1:15 and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Christ, "then being sin," then gave the soul/life of the flesh, in the blood, of him for sin [of the soul], Christ died, the wages of sin. The atonement.---

I have asked in the past if the having been made sin, dead, Son was unclean relative to God the Father, of him?
Was he made clean from sin and death? How? When?

IMHO Christ was dead from between the 9th hour to 12th hour on the 14th to the 9th hour to the 12th hour on the 17th the weekly Sabbath when he then became the first-born out of the dead [regeneration anyway one looks at it] Col 1:18 the first-fruit of them that sleep 1 Cor 15:And now, Christ [the, whole, of him] hath risen out of the dead -- the first-fruit of those sleeping he became,
I believe the see the whole of the matter in;
Rev 1:5 YLT and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born out of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth; to him who did love us, and did bathe us from our sins in his blood,

for if dead persons do not rise, neither hath Christ risen, and if Christ hath not risen, vain is your faith, ye are yet in your sins;

If Christ, to date the only one raised to die no more, is not raised you have not been washed of your sins, You ar still in your sins. Yes or No?

 

@percho,
If Christ was made sin, it follows that Habakkuk 1:13 would apply.
Written in haste, ence the brevity.

 

In my post #114, I made a foolish error. I wrote:

I should have written, 'Which the Bible says He WAS.' Obviously, He is no longer made sin. When our Lord declared, "It is finished," it was.